The Cat in the Hat's Storytime Favorites

Saturday, December 31, 2011

A pompous amphibian brags about his oversized oriface as he polls other creatures concerning their eating habits.

"I'm a wide-mouthed frog and I eat flies..., what do you eat?"

We learn about the varied diets of the bird, the mouse, and finally, the alligator, who ironically replies, "I eat delicious wide-mouthed frogs!"

The frog's immediate comical response is to pucker his mouth into as small an opening as possible, "Oooooh, you don't see many of those around do you?"and leaps into the pond with a "SPLASH!"

A stark white background offsets Lambert's bright watercolor characters, each of whom is placed in the book's centerfold. An impressive protruding pop-up proboscis emerges with each turn of the page, culminating with the colossal unfolding of the final "splash".

Enjoyable as a one-on-one readaloud, this little book also lends itself to frog-themed storytimes. It is especially entertaining to exaggerate mouth movements when performing the voice of the frog, and to bring to a vociferous conclusion.

The repeated sequences of the frog's interaction with each animal allow for easy memorization. Children will love creating additional animal characters and their appropriate lunches in order to keep the story alive longer.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Margaret Miller produces another photographic classic featuring common community occupations. A picture question is posed on one page ( Who flies an airplane?), and the reader is presented with four silly photo replies on the next (A bus driver? A statue? A turtle? A baby?). The true answer is presented on the next double page spread with gender and ethnically diverse subjects pictured ( a woman pilot).

Children will enjoy thinking through and responding to the absurdity of the false answers, as well as affirming the correct choice. The photos are arranged artfully in color and composition with clear depictions of the activity being performed as well as an engaging performer.

Big brother and sister celebrate their new sibling's milestones in rhyming guesses:

Baby likes to talk a lot.
But understand?
We do not.
Until one day,
what's that we heard?
Was that our Baby's very first...

WORD!?

Church's vivid pastel backgrounds highlight the simply delineated family figures in this joyful romp through first kisses, smiles, peek-a-boos, laughs, crawling, teeth, books, steps and falls leading up to the first birthday party.

A cheerful focus on family closeness, and a celebratory way to trace important landmarks of baby's development for older children. Walton adds a first year milestone poster on the back of the dust jacket with spots for photos of the momentous events. For fun, the author/illustrator photos on the fly leaf are baby pics.

Recommended for family reading, as well as for a story hour about babies or families.

The simple line-drawn bunny accompanied by his suspiciously box-like object repeatedly disabuses the notion of boxhood by responding to the series of queries with increasing fervor, "It's NOT NOT NOT NOT a box!"

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Meade's stunning and engaging earth-toned, double-spread woodcuts create a masterful backdrop for Elliott's simple, wry poetry. Children will delight in investigating the details of life on the family farm while absorbing clever observations on resident animals.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Degen joyously depicts the exuberant quest of a boy and a bear for berries to make jam. All kinds of berries! Lots and lots of berries!

The simple silly rhymes grow in tempo and intensity as the story progresses from the idyllic countryside, canoeing over waterfalls, dancing with ponies, piling train cars with "billions of berries", greeting brass bands and skating elephants, and flying away in a raspberry balloon as berry rockets explode about them:

"Mountains and fountains
Rain down on me
Buried in berries
What a jam jamboree!"

Be sure to serve up some jam and bread, and an array of berries with a dollop of cream along with this celebration of color and sound inspired by Degen's family memories of berry-picking and jam-making.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The scissors and the pencil decide to make rabbits: one with a collage of colorful paper, and the other with a simply drawn outline. The two rabbits immediately become friends. So begins Caldecott-winning illustrator, Leo Lionni's, original fable.

The rabbits eat carrots created by the scissors and pencil: one from colored paper, and the other, a simply drawn outline. They nap. Upon waking, the rabbits discover a real carrot from an unknown source. They know it is real because it has a shadow. As they eat it, they become real, too. They know they are real because they also have shadows. Joyously, they hop away.

This simple story with simple drawings against a white background is especially suited to a boardbook edition. The use of scissors and pencil as creative elements begs for a craft project using the same.